Bill Fennelly

Bill Fennelly is the head women's basketball coach at Iowa State. He has guided the Cyclones to a record of 192-90 in 9 seasons. The program had only 5 winning seasons in the previous 22 years, prior to his arrival. After his arrival, his teams have reached the NCAA Tournament 8 times, including a 1999 NCAA Elite Eight appearance, and Sweet Sixteen Appearances in both 2000 and 2001.

Iowa State has spent more than four years in the Associated Press national poll, including 34 weeks in the Top 10. In 10 seasons, he has posted more than twice as many conference wins, as the program had in all of its previous years combined. He has also guided the Cyclones to a 128-22 home-court record, including a 54-3 record against non-conference opponents.

Under Fennelly, Iowa State has made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, playing host to first- and second-round games five times. In the Cyclones’ inaugural WNIT appearance, Fennelly coached ISU to the Final Four. His teams have drawn record-setting crowds of loyal fans into Hilton Coliseum. ISU’s attendance average ranked among the top 11 schools nationally in each of the last eight seasons and the Cyclones enjoyed their first-ever sellout crowd in a 2004 WNIT/NIT doubleheader against Saint Joseph’s.

Fennelly is the only ISU coach to turn in 10 winning seasons and owns the program’s best winning percentage (.679). His phenomenal accomplishments at Iowa State have been recognized nationally. He is a three-time finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award (2001, 2002, 2005). His peers voted him WBCA District 5 Coach of the Year twice (1999, 2005) and he finished as the 1998 runner-up to Tennessee’s Pat Summitt in The Associated Press’ Women’s Coach of the Year balloting.

At Toledo: Fennelly came to ISU from Toledo, where he compiled a seven-year record of 166-53 (.758). His list of accomplishments at Toledo included six 20-plus win seasons, six postseason tournament berths in seven years and one of the top records in the nation over that span. Fennelly coached the Rockets to second, third- and fifth-place finishes in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) and three NCAA Tournament appearances. Fennelly was one of seven inductees selected to the 2003 Toledo Varsity "T" Hall of Fame.

Personal: A native of Davenport, Iowa, Fennelly accumulated 12 years of collegiate coaching experience at William Penn College, Fresno State and Notre Dame before taking the head coach position at Toledo. Fennelly graduated from William Penn with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics in 1979. He and his wife, Deb, have two sons, Billy and Steven.

External links

* [http://cyclones.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/fennelly_bill00.html Career profile]

References

----Courtesy: Iowa State UniversityRelease: 07/18/2006